Shadows of the West

Thanks to director John Ford and actor John Wayne, Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation Reservation epitomizes what a good portion of the world thinks of when they imagine the American West. Contemporary landscape artist Denis Milhomme’s late afternoon vision Shadows of the West brings into focus all that nature and the Navajo culture have to offer in this magnificent and amazingly dramatic place. “It is so vast and glorious here,” says Milhomme. “That’s how I think of the Navajo at the height of their civilization before the Europeans came, vast and glorious. Today, that civilization is a shadow of its former self, thus the title is something of a double entendre. Even the figure on horseback’s pose, and I have never put a human figure in one of my landscapes before, is meant to be reminiscent of James Earle Fraser’s End of the Trail.” Milhomme’s Shadows of the West was the anchor work of his showing at the 2012 Masters of the American West Exhibition and Sale at The Autry National Center. As his introductory Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Edition Canvas, Shadows of the West is as collectible an example of the artist’s work there is, for it showcases how Milhomme’s intricate attention to detail can bring to life the magnificent splendor of this fabled and storied land.